The Court, the Congress and the President: turning back the clock on the pregnant poor

Fam Plann Perspect. 1977 Sep-Oct;9(5):207-14.

Abstract

PIP: The effect of recent U.S. Court decisions and of executive, congressional, and state actions will be to cut off public funds for abortion services. This impact will fall most severely on the poor, especially black, teenage, unwed, and rural poor. Charts are presented which show the disproportion among states of abortion availability and expenditure. A virtual cutoff of public abortion funds will affect the estimated 300,000 poor women annually who receive Medicaid-funded abortions, the 150,000 other low-income women whose abortions are subsidized by clinics or hospitals, and the estimated 424,000 needy women unable to obtain abortion services because of Medicaid restrictions or inaccessibility. More than 3 million Medicaid-eligible women of reproductive age are at risk of unwanted pregnancy. Teenage illegitimacy and unwanted pregnancies will certainly rise, as will pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality. The final result of these recent decisions and actions will be soaring public expenditures for health and welfare payments.

MeSH terms

  • Abortion, Legal* / economics
  • Abortion, Legal* / statistics & numerical data
  • Black or African American
  • Federal Government
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Legislation as Topic*
  • Medicaid
  • Poverty*
  • Pregnancy
  • Social Security
  • United States